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Viviane Silvera
Press Release
“Close-Ups”
2001
“Close-Ups” makes an ordinary person extraordinary by coupling two seemingly incongruous
concepts; monumentality and intimacy, which are at the core of film making. Cinema
dissolves the distance and unfamiliarity between the actor and the audience through the use
of close-ups. An ordinary person becomes monumental as the camera boldly zooms in on
the character’s face and the audience becomes intimate with her features, texture, pores
and flesh. The face becomes a landscape encompassing the viewers’ cone of vision while
the cropping enhances this sense of intimacy. My drawings attempt to both mimic and
transform the film effect of cropped close-ups, by rendering the familiar technological screen
image in “classical” draftsman’s materials and techniques.
In the language of film, images are manipulated to provoke a certain response in the
audience. Because of the realism of a photo, the camera claims to be telling the “truth”. The
director utilizes techniques to create a seamless image that the viewer mistakes for reality.
Manipulation of lighting, cropping and editing is hidden and the viewer is unaware of the
process behind the result. The entire context is removed from the viewer’s experience and a
new artificial context is created.
By contrast, “Close-Ups” reveals the hand of the artist. Thousands of hatch marks cover the
surface of the paper. The red chalk pencil marks allow the director to be revealed and the
viewer cannot ignore the intense labor and artifice involved in the act of creation. Similar to
poetry’s ability to concentrate and distill language, my drawings attempt to capture the
essence of a visual experience. By revealing the artist’s hand-made marks the viewer
cannot ignore the subjectivity and intimacy between artist and artwork.
“Close-Ups”
2001
“Close-Ups” makes an ordinary person extraordinary by coupling two seemingly incongruous
concepts; monumentality and intimacy, which are at the core of film making. Cinema
dissolves the distance and unfamiliarity between the actor and the audience through the use
of close-ups. An ordinary person becomes monumental as the camera boldly zooms in on
the character’s face and the audience becomes intimate with her features, texture, pores
and flesh. The face becomes a landscape encompassing the viewers’ cone of vision while
the cropping enhances this sense of intimacy. My drawings attempt to both mimic and
transform the film effect of cropped close-ups, by rendering the familiar technological screen
image in “classical” draftsman’s materials and techniques.
In the language of film, images are manipulated to provoke a certain response in the
audience. Because of the realism of a photo, the camera claims to be telling the “truth”. The
director utilizes techniques to create a seamless image that the viewer mistakes for reality.
Manipulation of lighting, cropping and editing is hidden and the viewer is unaware of the
process behind the result. The entire context is removed from the viewer’s experience and a
new artificial context is created.
By contrast, “Close-Ups” reveals the hand of the artist. Thousands of hatch marks cover the
surface of the paper. The red chalk pencil marks allow the director to be revealed and the
viewer cannot ignore the intense labor and artifice involved in the act of creation. Similar to
poetry’s ability to concentrate and distill language, my drawings attempt to capture the
essence of a visual experience. By revealing the artist’s hand-made marks the viewer
cannot ignore the subjectivity and intimacy between artist and artwork.